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Who is Dan Caine, Trump's pick as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? — Caine, a three-star general whom Trump has praised since at least 2019, helped lead an operation in Iraq against the Islamic State during Trump's first term. — President Donald Trump on Friday …
Discussion:
NBC News, Raw Story, ABC News, The Independent, OutsideTheBeltway, The Post Millennial, Townhall, Must Read Alaska, Wall Street Journal and UPI
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Trump administration fires top US general and Navy chief in unprecedented purge of military leadership

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Statement on General Officer Nominations

Hegseth Fires Navy's Top Officer
Discussion:
Twitchy, Kevin Drum, DefenseScoop, Breaking Defense and The Gateway Pundit

Senate Democrat after Brown ouster: Trump's ‘quest for power’ endangers military
Discussion:
Washington Post

Trump Fires Joint Chiefs Chairman Amid Flurry of Dismissals at Pentagon
Discussion:
Telegraph, Raw Story, Military.com, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Reuters, The Atlantic, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Independent, Breitbart, DefenseScoop, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Breaking Defense, USA Today, CBS News, Bloomberg, Eschaton, Grabien, RedState and The American Conservative

A Friday-Night Massacre at the Pentagon
Discussion:
Doomsday Scenario, Reuters, New York Times, Fox News, CNN, Digby's Hullabaloo, Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money


U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine's Minerals — The Trump administration appears to be insisting that Ukraine relinquish half of its revenues from natural resource extraction, with no security guarantee in exchange. — Ukraine on Saturday was seriously considering …
Discussion:
New York Post, The New European and Euromaidan Press
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US threatens to shut off Starlink if Ukraine won't sign minerals deal, sources tell Reuters — Editor's Note: This story has been updated with Elon Musk's denial of the Reuters report. — The United States has threatened to cut off Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite internet terminals …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Washington Post, Euromaidan Press, Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit, CNN, Financial Times, New York Post, ABC News and Voice of America


'It's blackmail': Ukrainians react to Trump demand for $500bn share of minerals — Ukraine's lithium deposits are among biggest in Europe and the US is looking for ‘payback’ for previous military assistance — Luke Harding in Liodiane, pictures by Julia Kochetova
Discussion:
Forbes


New Social Security chief was being investigated when Musk team tapped him — Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office, was suspected of sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk's U.S. DOGE Service. Now he's the acting Social Security commissioner.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo and Political Wire
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Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In
Discussion:
HuffPost and The Independent


DOGE shared its receipts — and some of them don't match — “Everyone is very well-aware they're repeating the wrong numbers,” said one manager at a company on DOGE's list of cuts. — Elon Musk promised to deliver a “maximally transparent” government efficiency program.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story and New Republic
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DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes — The figures from Elon Musk's team of outsiders represent billions in government cuts. They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations. — Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and Kevin Drum


The Great Resegregation — The nostalgia behind the slogan “Make America great again” has always provoked the obvious questions of just when America was great, and for whom. Early in the second Trump administration, we are getting the answer. — In August, speaking with someone he believed …


Trump moves with light speed and brute force in shaking the core of what America has been — President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad. He likes the ring of calling himself king. — No one can absorb it all.
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February 21, 2025 — In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference …
Discussion:
Politico


Kristi Noem Says $200 Million DHS Ad Campaign Thanking Trump Was His Idea — Trump's Homeland Security Secretary said he instructed her to make ads that “thank me for closing the border” — NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — The Department of Homeland Security has budgeted up to $200 million …
Discussion:
NOTUS


Meloni, Privately Startled by Trump, Avoids Criticism of US — Premier, entourage taken aback by magnitude of Trump attacks — Italian PM warned on trade at Washington CPAC speech Saturday — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been quiet lately, even as the US threatens …
Discussion:
Reuters
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The Trump Administration Is Playing With Fire in Germany
Discussion:
Drop Site News, American Thinker, Washington Examiner, Washington Post and Plain Dealer

Global Right-Wing Leaders Revel in a Renewed Fight, Supercharged by Trump
Discussion:
Fox News, Deseret News, Daily Mail, PinkNews and HuffPost


How Federal Employees Are Fighting Back Against Elon Musk … Karen Ortiz, an administrative law judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said her ability to send emails was shut off after she sent an agencywide message calling on the commission's acting chair to resign.Taurat Hossain for The New York Times


Musk's cost-cutting team is laying off workers at the auto safety agency overseeing his car company — Elon Musk's cost-cutting team is eliminating jobs at the vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving his company's cars.
Discussion:
New York Times and UPI


Trump's Own Pollster Just Hit Him with Very Bad News—and a Warning — As you watch President Donald Trump and Elon Musk recklessly attempt to destroy the federal government like a pair of toddlers picking legs off a spider, it seems as if Republicans have decided public opinion no longer constrains them in the least.


Pope Francis is in critical condition after long respiratory crisis, requiring oxygen at high flow — Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, BBC, New York Times, The Virginian-Pilot, Townhall, Al Jazeera, Fox News, Associated Press, Crux Now, UPI, San Diego Union-Tribune, America Magazine, The Indian Express, RTÉ, Forbes, Human Events and Metro.co.uk


Recording reveals new details on controversial DOGE employee — Less than three years before Elon Musk tapped him to take part in a sweeping overhaul of the US government, Edward Coristine, then 17, was the subject of a heated dispute between two executives at the Arizona-based cybersecurity firm where he was an intern.
Discussion:
New York Magazine


The DOGE Project Will Backfire — Trump's war on public employees is bad for all of us. — President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk justify dismantling the civil service as cost cutting. The federal government has “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud …
Discussion:
Can We Still Govern?, The Independent and Federal News Network


Federal prisons prep to move trans inmates as early as next week — The Bureau of Prisons is pushing ahead with plans to move transgender inmates out of prisons that align with their gender identity and into facilities corresponding to their sex at birth. The moves could happen as early as next week …


NBC Settles Defamation Lawsuit With Georgia Doctor Whom Rachel Maddow Dubbed the ‘Uterus Collector,’ Avoiding High Stakes Trial — NBC's top anchors made ‘verifiably false’ statements about a doctor they accused of performing ‘mass hysterectomies’ on female inmates at ICE facility, a federal judge ruled last year
Discussion:
JONATHAN TURLEY, NPR, RedState, The Post Millennial, Fox News, Breitbart and HotAir, more at Mediagazer »


They Worked to Prevent Death. The Trump Administration Fired Them. — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — Every day, they tackled complex issues with life-or-death stakes:
Discussion:
Raw Story


Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding — Experts say current US outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention with further mutation of virus likely — A newer variant of H5N1 bird flu has spilled over into dairy cows separately in Nevada and Arizona …


Why Civ-Mil People Are Freaking Out? — Trump bravely waited until Friday night to purge the top level of the US military. Why are people freaking out? We knew this was going to happen. Trump promised this before the election, and the selection of Hegseth, a misogynist and racist …


Texas measles outbreak grows to 90 cases, worst level in 30 years — Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state's highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school year — The measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.
Discussion:
New York Times, Ars Technica, lonestarlive.com, Forbes, Daily Press, WFAA-TV and Fox News


Trump Admin. Agrees to Restore 9/11 Health Program Funding — “This is a clear example of the damaging Trump-DOGE shoot first, ask questions later approach,” said Chuck Schumer. — Flint Water Lawsuit Settled for $53 Million — NOT OUR FAULT — Despite the settlement …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Raw Story